The nature of emotions in Spinoza's philosophy and reading its reflection in White Castle

The objective of this thesis, presented under the title "The Nature of Emotions in Spinoza's Philosophy and Reading its Reflection in White Castle", different approaches to the concept of emotion in the history of philosophy were discussed. After that, the question of whether it can be applied to the slave-master/ Hoja union is put forward through the reflection of Spinoza philosophy on a novel that has historical and postmodern elements. In this study, the main goal is to read Orhan Pamuk's novel White Castle with the nature of the emotions in Spinoza philosophy, and to understand and interpret the book within a philosophical framework. Therefore, in this study, the concept of emotion in philosophy, the intersections and workings of literature and philosophy are emphasized in detail, while the differences in the way emotions, mythos are handled in philosophy and literature exposited. In this context, in the analysis in question, the book was first approached by a hermeneutic method, and this goal was realized through the study of the slave master/ Hoja union in the story structure of the novel. In Spinoza's philosophy, it is the human who will determine one's own stance in the face of desire, joy, sadness and other emotions that are derivatives of them. The framework of slavery and immanent freedom will determine its relationship with reason, which is the control of emotions. In other words, -immanent- freedom is the unity of reason and body. Slave-master dialectic, which forms the touchstone of Hegel philosophy, is shaped by the concepts of land, consciousness and self-consciousness. Slavery will begin for those who cannot take the risk to die, so that s/he can act as a parenthesis between his/her master and the land. However, continued slavery will be the mastery that will be defeated. In this context, in this thesis, the positions of the slave and the master/ Hoja were determined first in the White Castle novel, and then the slave's taking master's place by ending his physical slavery as a result of the slave's control of his emotions and arguing against his feelings was tried to be understood to by using hermeneutic method. In summary, Orhan Pamuk's novel White Castle was read on the reflection of the nature of emotions in Spinoza's philosophy, and the replacement of slave and immanent freedom was evaluated through emotions. Keywords: Emotion(s), Slave, Master, Freedom, Substitution